ACC coaches don't compare to 1989

The current crop of ACC coaches has a lot to prove before catching the class of 1989.

Posted 4:34 p.m. Sep 24, 2008 — Updated 4:34 p.m. Sep 24, 2008

Dane Huffman

The ACC’s torpid start raised questions about the quality of football in the league, a question somewhat muted by the league’s performance last weekend.

But N.C. State athletics director Lee Fowler raised an interesting point Wednesday in an interview with 99.9 FM The Fan.

“I do think probably at this time we have as good a head coaches in the league as we’ve had, and that’s from top to bottom,” Fowler said. “And I think, given the time for these guys to get their program going, we’re going to have one of the better leagues in the country.

“I think we have 12 of the better head coaches we’ve ever had in this conference.”

It’s an observation worth a closer look.

Personally, I believe the league had a stronger set of coaches in the late 1980s and specifically 1989.

Virginia and Duke tied for the league title that season.The Cavaliers had their best coach ever (George Welsh) and Duke had its second-best ever (Steve Spurrier, second only to Wallace Wade).

Clemson was in the last year of the Danny Ford regime, and Ford finished 10-2 in 1989 before being pushed out.

Georgia Tech had Bobby Ross, who would win a share of the national title in 1990 and go on to be successful in the NFL.

N.C. State had Dick Sheridan, whose only equal in Wolfpack history was Lou Holtz. I’d rank Holtz slightly ahead of Sheridan as the best coach N.C. State has ever had but there’s no question both were superior coaches.

North Carolina finished 1-10 that year for the second straight year under Mack Brown, but Brown the Heels pointed in a winning direction and his recruiting classes would soon pay off.

Carolina’s three best coaches ever were Carl Snavely, Bill Dooley and Brown. Snavely benefited from Charlie Justice’s brilliance, and Dooley produced steady winners that played tough, and somewhat boring, football. I believe Brown was the best Carolina ever had, and the program could have approached elite status if he had not left for Texas in 1997.

Wake Forest had Dooley in 1989, who struggled that year but made the Deacons competitive overall. The weak link in the 1989 group of ACC coaches was Maryland’s Joe Krivak, who would stumble on for two more years before being fired.

That’s the best collection of football coaches I can remember in the ACC. But Fowler’s point on the strength of the current coaches has merit.

The coaches in North Carolina, for example, are strong and may get the state moving in a sport long overshadowed by basketball.

Jim Grobe has been brilliant at Wake Forest.

Butch Davis has recruited well and hiked interest in the UNC program.. He’ll have to show he can get his team to play smart in big games, as it failed to do in Saturday’s loss to Virginia Tech. But UNC’s talent is rising and the program will only improve as it matures.

N.C. State’s Tom O’Brien has been shackled by a ridiculous run of injuries – although getting him to share information on that is like asking North Korea about its nuclear weapons. But O’Brien is a tough coach who knows how to win, and will. He’s similar to Sheridan in his approach and ultimately may have similar success.

Duke’s David Cutcliffe knows how to lead and has the benefit of the school finally backing football.

Elsewhere, you have to love Frank Beamer of Virginia Tech, Paul Johnson of Georgia Tech and maybe even Tommy Bowden of Clemson, although Tiger fans are hard to please.

It’s too early to judge Jeff Jagodzinski of Boston College and Randy Shannon of Miami. Al Groh of Virginia and Ralph Friedgen of Maryland appear to be faltering and Bobby Bowden of Florida State… well, let’s be nice.

As good as the SEC?

Gosh, no chance.

And as good as 1989?

Not by my count.

Overall, though, the ACC has a strong group of coaches and some programs with a chance to rise. The key to how these coaches are judged is whether any of these programs can push into elite status. Right now, only Virginia Tech ranks among college football’s best programs, and the current coaches will have to change that before the league is taken seriously.

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